Watch the First Teaser for James Gunn’s Office Horror ‘The Belko Experiment’

I’ve always wondered why more horror films aren’t set in corporate environments. While the office remains a popular setting for comedies and the ubiquitous faux-documentary television programs, anything darker — such as the 2006 horror film Severance, which centers on a group of coworkers in the midst of an office wilderness retreat — remains the exception rather than the rule. For how much hidden animosity and frustration your typical office building contains, you’d think this would be an area ripe for exploration by the right twisted storyteller.

That’s probably why I’m so interested in James Gunn’s upcoming release of The Belko Experiment. Written and produced by Gunn — and shot by Wolf Creek director Greg McLean — The Belko Experiment promises a violent twist on the office environment that will serve as a cathartic event for those of us unlucky enough to work a typical nine-to-five. Earlier this weekend, James Gunn offered us our first look at the film (via iO9), with a full theatrical trailer set for a November 30 release. As he noted on social media, The Belko Experiment also marks the return of the very familiar logo for Orion Pictures.

The Belko Experiment premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and received the kind of mixed reviews you would expect from a violent horror movie, but Varietydid praise the film’s tongue-in-cheek approach, noting that the might not achieve greatness but does give it “a playful squeeze.” With a solid cast of familiar faces and a fun office spin on the Battle Royale premise, The Belko Experiment will remain one of my most anticipated movies of 2017.

Here is the full plot synopsis for The Belko Experiment courtesy of the film’s IMDb page:

In a twisted social experiment, a group of 80 Americans are locked in their high-rise corporate office in Bogata, Colombia and ordered by an unknown voice coming from the company’s intercom system to participate in a deadly game of kill or be killed.